Should the Wheaton College Professor have been suspended for wearing a hijab?

The school dismissed Hawkins; she consulted a lawyer, and received an undisclosed settlement. PHOTO: THE NEW YORK TIMES

Whether in Islamic theocracies or places with visible minority Muslim populations, from China to the United Kingdom, the hijab twists conservatives and liberals in their support or opposition to dress normally associated with fundamental religion. We see bullies “rip off”hijabs; one such incident recently took place inNew York City. On the other extreme, groups like the Talibandeclare, “wear hijab or be disfigured.” And they carry out such threats. Nushin Arbabzadah summed up this contrast inThe New York Times:

“Women may want to express ‘solidarity’ with Muslim women by covering up. But Muslim women don’t need to cover up. This act of solidarity perpetuates a version of Islam that says it’s OK to poison little girls who dare to feel the sunlight on their heads.”

“ …these well-intentioned Americans… argue that a woman’s honour lies in her ‘chastity’ and (are) unwittingly pushing a platform to put a hijab on every woman.”

So what about these women that express such “solidarity”? Consider Larycia Hawkins, a professor at Wheaton, a college in New York for evangelical Christians, who wore a hijab during Advent. The result, as reported by The New York Times:

“Jesse Jackson had compared Hawkins with Rosa Parks, while Franklin Graham, an evangelist and Billy Graham’s son, declared, ‘Shame on her!’ Students protested, fasted and tweeted. Donors, parents and alumni were in an uproar.”

The school dismissed Hawkins; she consulted a lawyer, and received an undisclosed settlement. This hijab morality play recurs often, as when FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs or the World Chess Federation) let Iran host the Women’s Chess Championship this February, 2017, and the Iranian authorities mandated hijab. As The New York Times reported:

“Nazi Paikidze-Barnes, a United States women’s chess champion, has said that she will boycott next year’s world championship in Iran because religious law would require her to wear a hijab….‘I think it’s unacceptable to host a Women’s World Championship in a place where women do not have basic fundamental rights and are treated as second-class citizens,’ she wrote.”

On a personal level, I’m a Persian American with three daughters. We live in Edmonds, Washington, where our children have Muslim classmates from Iran, Egypt, and Afghanistan, but only one hijabi in an elementary school of about 300 students. According to my observations, and my daughters’, beyond responding to friendly greetings, this girl rarely speaks to anyone. I volunteer in the school and have tutored her older brother, Idris, who wears Western clothes. I wonder about his little sister’s “choice.” Would she feel more comfortable if others wore “hijab?” Or would she find the act patronising? Does she wonder why her brother can assimilate and not her?

The idea that my daughters have a choice, in many ways, is as absurd as the idea that Idris’s little sister does. Parents make that choice. But in America adult women also have this right. Women in Iran and Saudi Arabia do not. Women in the West are rarely, if ever, poisoned, disfigured by acid, caned, or imprisoned for wearing religious clothes, and in the rare cases they are victimised they are protected by the State; the guilty parties prosecuted according to law (as seen in the case in New York). In places like Iran and Saudi Arabia, discrimination is enforced by the state. The culture follows.

As long as this dichotomy exists, Professor Hawkins’ “solidarity” aligns with an ideology that oppresses women. We should support Ms Hawkins’ right to wear hijab, but not the anti-progressive symbolism of her gesture.

Clarification: The Blogs desk was contacted by Wheaton College that issued a clarification regarding Dr Hawkins. According to Wheaton College, Dr Hawkins had not been dismissed, she was placed on paid administrative leave in order to provide time to explore the theological implications of her public statements regarding Christianity and Islam. This administrative leave was in no way connected to her commitment to wear a hijab during Advent. Dr Hawkins and the college later mutually agreed to part ways.

The writer is a Polish/Persian American and worked overseas for eight years, in East Asia, the Middle East, and South America. He now lives in the Pacific Northwest with his family. He Tweets @sonofmizrahi (twitter.com/sonofmizrahi?lang=en)

Nicely argued……and I agree with your ending.
In my view the hijab is but a piece of cloth ( a scarf in the western sense ) but when associated with religion and that too Islam, it becomes controversial….can one really blame the world at large for the perception it has formed about the religion ?
The good professor’s heart was in the right place but her head was not thinking right.Recommend

Samzz

funny…she is covering her head but exposing the shoulder…thats not hijabRecommend

siesmann

She is not Muslim.You should appreciate her gesture of support Recommend